Wild Flowering: The Crow Family and Asia

In honor of Trammell and Margaret Crow, the Crow Collection of Asian Art presents Wild Flowering: The Crow Family and Asia. This exhibition focuses on the adventure of the Crow family over two generations of collecting Asian art between 1960 and the present day. The evolution of their personal insight and pleasures into a public treasure are highlighted. The exhibition is organized by the sequence of purchases that form the core collection of the museum opened by the Crow family to the public in 1998. At the heart of the story, however, are Trammell and Margaret Crow and their family – industrious, loyal, visionary, and generous – alive to all possibilities in a time when Asia and America can interact with a speed never before possible. This story is narrated in the exhibition through photographs, letters, quotations, and other material from the Crow family archives that introduce each decade of their collecting history.

Works of art from the collection that are seldom, if ever, shown at the museum appear alongside signature objects.

Works of art from the collection that are seldom, if ever, shown at the museum appear alongside signature objects. Visitors can expect to encounter an array of intricately carved table screens on which entire novels seem to be depicted; a Ming dynasty landscape hanging scroll never before shown; a towering Buddhist deity, carved in wood, who offers safety and a wish-granting jewel of wisdom; a tomato red wall-sized silk birthday banner; vast landscapes that beckon from tiny painted glass snuff bottles; and of course jades as various in color as water and clouds.

In conjunction with Wild Flowering: The Crow Family and Asia, the special exhibition Blossoming Stone: Qing Dynasty Jade presents a vibrant selection of over one hundred pieces from the museum’s renowned jade collection. Long noted for its craftsmanship, impressive artistic styles, and comprehensive nature, this collection of the “stone of heaven” ranks among the highlights of the museum’s holdings.